BanglaCricket Article

It still hurts. A few days have passed but the pain lingers. It is not so much
the repeated defeats but the manner in which they were inflicted. It seems the
players almost do not care. We see the wrong attitude but are given the same
old platitude. We got tired of Bashar's post match comments. I am sure even
he found it embarrassing. Have you noticed how fast Ashraful is learning on the
job. "Yes, we will learn from our mistakes." I have already heard it three times.

Light at the end of the tunnel? The bulb needs changing!

by Imtiaz Kabir

Published: 3rd August, 2007

It still hurts. A few days have passed but the pain lingers. It is not so much
the repeated defeats but the manner in which they were inflicted. It seems the
players almost do not care. We see the wrong attitude but are given the same
old platitude. We got tired of Bashar's post match comments. I am sure even
he found it embarrassing. Have you noticed how fast Ashraful is learning on the
job. "Yes, we will learn from our mistakes." I have already heard it three times.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel ? Well, the bulb needs to be changed.
Whether the bulb is the metaphor for our players or selectors I do not know.
Possibly both.

In this state of despair, I have done some little research. Despite, all these
platitudes, hardly any evidence exists of any sustained improvement however
meagre. Dav Whatmore may have brought some discipline in one day bowling. This
is what the mark sheet says after four years !
I have come up with a statistic which I have called the Imbalance Index. It
could also be termed the Domination Index. It is correlated to a side's domination
or the lack of it. It is simply the ratio of a team's batting average over its
bowling average. Bangladesh's overall Imbalance Index over 49 tests is 0.38

Tests

Won

Lost

Drawn

Imbalance Index

HS

LS

HC

LC

Bat Ave

Bowl Ave

49

1

43

5

0.38

488

62

610

154

20.60

53.70

As will be seen later, the recent Sri Lanka series was the second worst performance
by Bangladesh in any series where two or more tests were played. Since the index
measures the worth of each wicket, it truly reflects the balance of power. So
the true dominance exerted by Sri Lanka, for example, scoring 500 in one innings
but also losing only 4 wickets in the process is also taken into account.
The index of the other test playing countries' in this decade [2000's] are as
follows:

Tests

Won

Lost

Drawn

Imbalance Index

HS

LS

HC

LC

Bat Ave

Bowl Ave

Aus

85

64

10

11

1.60

735

93

705

53

43.7

27.3

SL

74

34

25

15

1.25

756

73

600

62

35.4

28.4

SA

82

38

25

19

1.18

682

84

756

54

37.4

31.8

Ind

75

29

22

24

1.06

705

99

679

84

36.7

34.7

Pak

69

29

25

15

1.05

679

53

675

73

34.8

33.1

Eng

97

45

29

23

1.04

617

79

751

47

34.7

33.3

NZ

56

18

20

18

0.98

630

73

643

59

32.9

33.6

WI

86

15

48

23

0.80

751

47

658

63

29.7

37.3

Zim

44

5

30

9

0.62

563

54

735

107

26.5

42.9

As expected, Australia is on top of the pile. Each Australian wicket on average
scores 60% more runs than their opponents. A staggering statistic. Sri Lanka's
position is slightly inflated by playing Bangladesh more often than any other
country. Of the 49 tests Bangladesh have played, 10 were against Sri Lanka.
Their record against Zimbabwe is also 100%.

So what is Bangladesh's current position relative to its score in the last
six years? As can be seen from the next table, Bangladesh dominated only one
series, against Zimbabwe, when the team won the series 1 - 0. Great rearguard
batting by Javed Omar and Nafis Iqbal saved the second test. A rare instance
of Bangladesh eeking out a draw. It was effectively a third string Zimbabwe
though. The series against Pakistan in Pakistan in 2003, when we came close
to a win in Multan is the closest series Bangladesh actually contested barring
the Zimbabwe home series in 2004/05. In fact, it was last year against Sri Lanka
and who can forget Australia [ in one test only ] that Bangladesh were half
as good as their opponents. Also against England at home in 2003.

It was indeed against England in 2005 that the biggest drubbing was received.
England only lost six wickets in amassing those runs. No wonder each English
wicket were worth nine times more than a Bangladesh wicket notwithstanding Aftab's
brilliant 82 not out and a characteristic 71 from Omar at Chester-le-Street.
Each English wicket cost a monumental 162 runs. The II equals just 0.11

Year

Against

In

Tests

Won BD

Lost BD

Drawn

Imbalance Index

HS

LS

HC

LC

Bat Ave

Bowl Ave

2000/01

Ind

BD

1

0

1

0

0.55

400

91

429

429

24.50

44.80

H

2000/01

Zim

Zim

2

0

2

0

0.52

266

168

457

457

24.20

46.50

H

2001/02

Pak

Pak

1

0

1

0

0.08

148

134

546

-

14.10

182.00

L

2001/02

SL

SL

1

0

1

0

0.19

328

90

555

-

20.90

111.00

L

2001/02

Zim

BD

2

0

1

1

0.46

301

107

542

431

23.70

51.70

H

2001/02

NZ

NZ

2

0

2

0

0.31

205

108

365

-

14.50

47.00

L

2001/02

Pak

BD

2

0

2

0

0.29

160

148

490

-

15.20

53.00

L

2002

SL

SL

2

0

2

0

0.31

184

161

541

373

17.30

56.00

L

2002/03

SA

SA

2

0

2

0

0.17

252

107

529

-

18.60

112.30

L

2002/03

WI

BD

2

0

2

0

0.39

212

87

536

296

15.80

41.00

H

2003

SA

BD

2

0

2

0

0.27

237

102

470

330

18.00

66.60

L

2003

Aus

Aus

2

0

2

0

0.21

295

97

556

-

18.30

87.50

L

2003

Pak

Pak

3

0

3

0

0.71

361

96

346

175

24.20

33.90

H

2003/04

Eng

BD

2

0

2

0

0.50

255

138

326

295

19.10

38.50

H

2003/04

Zim

Zim

2

0

1

1

0.50

331

168

441

441

22.20

44.60

H

2004

WI

WI

2

0

1

1

0.40

416

176

559

352

29.40

73.10

H

2004/05

NZ

BD

2

0

2

0

0.31

262

126

545

402

18.60

59.10

L

2004/05

Ind

BD

2

0

2

0

0.39

333

124

540

526

21.00

53.30

H

2004/05

Zim

BD

2

1

0

1

1.33

488

211

312

154

34.90

26.20

H

2005

Eng

Eng

2

0

2

0

0.11

316

104

528

-

17.10

162.50

L

2005/06

SL

SL

2

0

2

0

0.36

197

86

457

-

16.50

45.90

L

2005/06

SL

BD

2

0

2

0

0.55

319

181

338

316

23.30

42.50

H

2005/06

Aus

BD

2

0

2

0

0.49

427

148

581

269

26.90

55.00

H

2007

Ind

BD

2

0

1

1

0.34

253

118

610

-

22.20

64.50

L

2007

SL

SL

3

0

3

0

0.18

299

62

577

-

16.80

95.50

L

49

1

43

5

0.38

488

62

610

154

20.60

53.70

The last column indicates whether the index for that particular series was
better or worse than the overall 0.38. Here the pattern is truly mixed. It would
seem that in 2003/04 we played four series in a row where the index was higher
than the average. The worst run of performance started in 2001/02 when we had
four consecutive series which were below our extremely low average. In fact,
in 2005/06 relative to our standards, we did reasonably well against Sri Lanka
and Australia at home.
Lastly, the same statistic can be presented in terms of the contemporary captain.

N Rahman

7

0

6

1

0.37

400

90

555

429

22.10

60.20

K Mashud

12

0

12

0

0.30

262

87

545

296

16.60

56.20

K Mahmud

9

0

9

0

0.45

361

96

556

175

20.40

45.70

H Bashar

18

1

13

4

0.47

488

86

610

154

23.60

50.70

M Ashraful

3

0

3

0

0.18

299

62

577

-

16.80

95.50

It would appear that Bashar's term was the best. But bear in mind, Taibu's
third rate Zimbabwians visited Bangladesh during this time and Enam destroyed
them single-handedly. Ashraful's term started as we know miserably but it is
too early to call.

After receiving a sound thrashing from the Lankans, Bangladesh's next mission is against the Black Caps at their home soil in November-December 2007. A young team with an average age of 22 can only get better? After going through all the stats do you see any light at the end of the tunnel? You have to live in hope. After all, the Kiwis
index is only 0.98!

About the author(s): Imtiaz Kabir was introduced to cricket in the days of shortwave radio. He later settled in England where he had the opportunity to watch the greats of the last 30 years and more.